Council faces Bigger decision

The same firm that gave Auditor General Brian Bigger a glowing review last year is being asked to come up with options for the future of the internal audit department in Greater Sudbury.

The Institute of Internal Auditors gave Bigger’s office the rough equivalent of an ‘A’ when they were contracted by the city in 2012 to evaluate the work he has done since he was hired in 2009. Now, the firm is being asked to examine what form internal audits should take in the future, and where their focus should lie.

At their meeting March 26, city councillors will decide whether to hire James Key, a certified internal auditor, at an estimated cost of $4,800, to study audit options and report back to council in May.

Key’s study would assess how audits are currently done, interview everyone involved, look at options for exactly what the city hopes to achieve from its internal audits, what it can reasonably expect to accomplish and provide a list of recommendations on how the city can get the most for its money.

The process is also expected to find ways to improve the way the audit committee oversees the process. Previous recommendations have included such things as changing the composition of the audit committee to include people with accounting expertise who would have a better grasp of how audits work.

The review is a result of a January motion by Mayor Marianne Matichuk to make the auditor general’s department permanent. While there was wide support among councillors for the motion, many wanted a report first that would consider, for example, whether the job could be contracted out rather than be handled by a city department full-time.

While strongly supported by Matichuk and Ward 8 Coun. Fabio Belli, Bigger has had a strained relationship with some city councillors since he took the job four years ago.

His audits have uncovered, among other things, missing ticket money at Sudbury Transit, which is still under investigation by the OPP. He also found problems at the city’s roads department, both with the way recycled asphalt was tracked and with ensuring road contractors delivered pavement to the quality specified in the contract.

He has struggled at times to get co-operation from some city departments, and some councillors have been critical of him, accusing him of being too close to the media and of exaggerating the impact of his audits.

Despite the glowing review from the Institute of Internal Auditors, councillors voted to reduce his contract from three years to one in closed-door meetings in late 2011. Those meetings were investigated by Ontario Ombudsman André Marin, who cleared councillors of wrongdoing, but criticized them for not co-operating with his team of investigators.

He called them the least co-operative city council he had ever dealt with, after only two councillors – Ward 3 Coun. Claude Berthiaume and Ward 9 Coun. Doug Craig – agreed to be interviewed without having a lawyer present.

That led to a sharp deterioration of already strained relations with the Ombudsman, culminating in council’s controversial decision to fire Marin last month.

The Greater Sudbury Taxpayer’s Federation launched a petition signed by thousands of Sudburians calling on council to rehire Marin.

That petition, while symbolic since the decision can’t be reversed for two years, was also meant to signal to council that firing Bigger would create a much larger controversy.

The GSTA is holding a news conference in the morning before the March 26 meeting to update the status of the petition.